Riu Santa Fe Brides, Post Here!

Well Girls, here it is, my Wedding review. It’s kind of long but I want to get as many details in it for you as possible! Sorry it’s late, I wanted to wait until I had photographs and videos for you!

Firstly, let me start with the hotel, immaculate, beautiful, clean, big and a great location. Lots of atmosphere and personality! We walked through the Palace and it was nothing compared to the Santa Fe, it was like a ghost town, there was nothing going on there, no one at the bars or even in the pool!

Cabo is gorgeous, by far my favourite place in Mexico, from the sights to the night life.

I splurged quite a bit considering it was a destination wedding but I wanted everything to be perfect. The guys had Calvin Klein beige linen pants and white linen shirts, I made James wear a matching jacket as I wanted him to look different than the Groomsmen and it looked amazing, although he was melting and he took it off as soon as the ceremony finished!

My bridesmaids and I were all in Watters/B2 dresses and they’re dresses were all slightly different yet similar and all in different shades of blue as I wanted it to look like the ocean. Since flowers are not cheap in Cabo I decided instead of bouquets to get them yellow parasols and they looked great!

I had made welcome bags for everyone that they could use as beach bags. I made a wedding logo and ironed it on, I had insulated travel mugs for everyone with our wedding logo on it, personalized match books and flip flop key chains.

We had a group of 20 people, we met with Aurore as Nelly was on vacation, on day 2 to finalize all the arrangements. Aurore was amazing and such a sweetheart! We had the Royal package which was $2450 and we spent $2300on photography, there were a lot of friends and family who couldn’t make it and we had a reception planned when we got back so we wanted to make sure that the picture were perfect. This included 4 hours of photography and videography between 3-9pm, 150 prints in a leather album with the CD of all the pictures and an hour long fully edited DVD with the original footage. The best decision we made, they turned out amazing. The hotel just partnered up with a new Company, Mango Weddings, so the packages they offered were much better than the ones the hotel originally had.

The Wedding Day:

My bridesmaids, Mother and myself all went to Suzanne Morels Spa to get our hair and make up done. They were amazing, we all looked like movie stars! We were there a full 5 hours! I had a white orchid in my hair and the girls had little yellow flowers which really finished off the look.

We got back to the hotel around 2.30 and the wedding was at 4pm. James and I spent the night before apart, so the girls got ready with me in building 7 and the guys got ready in building 4.

The photographers were coming at 3pm to film us getting ready and all we had to do at this stage was put our dresses on. We were waiting for a phone call at 4pm to tell us they were ready for us and to head down to the beach. I was surprised how calm and relaxed I was, I usually cry at weddings so I thought for sure I would be a mess at my own! But I was just happy and excited to see it all come together!

We got the call and headed to the beach. It must have been the hottest day yet! Even with a light dress I was sweating buckets!!

We waited by the pool bar for our song to start, I walked down the aisle to “Somewhere over the rainbow†by Israel Kawakiwiwo’ole which was the perfect song. As we started walking everyone in the infinity pool started to cheer which was nice. As I turned the corner on the beach I thought I would lose it but I was fine and my Dad and I were laughing and joking the whole way down the aisle.

The ceremony location looked beautiful. I took down my own tulle as I wanted an aqua/seafoam colour and they didn’t have it, but I couldn’t find a lot of material. Only enough for the arch, the tables and the aisle chairs. I left it down there and told them they can use it as lots of people want blue, so ask them for it if that’s your colours.

The ceremony itself only lasted about 10 minutes, which was perfect. James had a hard time understanding the coordinator and had to ask her to repeat a few things which was funny and the judge had a gold tooth and crazy lip liner which we couldn’t stop laughing at! We were pronounced husband and Wife to “I’m Yours†by Jason Mraz and I had about 8 songs on my CD and they played the whole thing which was great as they told me they only play three.

After the ceremony we signed the papers as we were having a legal ceremony and you have to give thumb prints which leaves your thumb black, so make sure someone has some wet wipes with them to wipe your thumbs! You don’t need black thumb prints all over your dress! We had to improvise and we used tequila from the bar!!!

Then we spent the next hour taking pictures on the beach which I think is what having a destination wedding is all about, they look amazing!! We had had some crazy weather when we first got there and the waves were pretty big and had washed up tons of jelly fish! They were everywhere! So we had to be really careful when down by the water so we didn’t step on them! At one point the photographer asked us to write our names in the sand and since we weren’t paying attention we got soaked by a rogue wave which did not please me! Also, there were these two topless women and their boyfriends frolicking in the ocean right where we were taking pictures which annoyed me so the photographer asked them to move. I don’t want fake boobs in my Wedding pictures!

Then we headed up to the pool bar for a drink, it was about 5.15pm by this point so we had until 6.30pm for dinner. We decided to go back to building 7 where we had 10 rooms next to each other to cool down a bit, plus James and I had something to practice, which I will get into later! My hair was destroyed by this point. I had it half up and by the time we’d been outside an hour and a half it was completely straight instead of curly, wet and sticking to my back, so my bridesmaids had re-do my hair so I could put it up, they did a great job! So my advice to you is, have an up do!

We had our reception at the Steakhouse which is by far the best location. It is the only restaurant by the pool and the ocean and the only place where you can see the sunset. I took a lot of things with me to decorate the table, we had a U shape formation so everyone was facing each other, I made my own menu’s, place cards, shell place card holders, had blue petals, blue glass starfish candle holders, seafoam dyed real starfish, shells scattered all over the table and the flowers from my bouquet as it fell apart! I also had big blue paper pompoms that I got from Michaels and we hung them on the inside of the tables and pinned them to the tablecloth. It looked great! For favours I had little bucket candles (blue of course!) and for the guys a souvenir mini bottle of tequila that we bought in town. I got most of the stuff online.

The food was amazing, we did the speeches right away in between courses which working out really well as we were on a schedule, we had the disco rented 8-11pm for a private party. So we had to skip dessert and do the cake cutting in the disco, so our cake was the dessert. Which was a good decision as the dessert at the restaurant was not very nice. We had a carrot cake with light blue icing and it was delicious!!! I decorated the cake with just some shells.

Renting the disco was the best decision we made, otherwise, what do you do? Plus, it’s air conditioned so it was really refreshing to be cool for a change! The disco is a perfect size, it’s really retro looking which I loved and I did my own playlist on my ipod and told the DJ just to play the whole thing so we had our own music the whole night. After the cake cutting we did our first dance. Our song is “This I swear†by Nick Lachey and we had actually been taking dance lessons 4 weeks prior as we didn’t want to just stand there and sway to the music and this was a big surprise to our guests! After the wedding we went to the room to practice in my dress as we have a lift at the end and it was challenging! My dress was so long and he kept stepping on it, so we were a bit worried about how it would turn out and decided just to wing it. So we attempted it and it was a disaster! It still looked okay to everyone else but we knew it wasn’t and I decided at the end not to do the lift! But he kept standing on my dress and I kept standing on his flip flops but it gave us a good laugh! Then we partied all night and it was so much fun!

It was a great day and night, everything went according to plan and looked amazing! See for yourself!

Carly and James's Wedding Album | The Wedding Lens access code HJDS7C. I also have two videos posted on you tube, here are the URL’s:

YouTube - Carly & James' Wedding, Oct 17th 2009, Riu Santa Fe, Los Cabos, Mexico This is the getting ready footage.

YouTube - Carly & James' Wedding, Oct 17th 09, Riu Santa Fe, Los Cabos, Mexico Ceremony This is the actual ceremony.

YouTube - Carly & James' Wedding, Oct 17th 09, Riu Santa Fe, Los Cabos, Mexico beach footage This is just James and I after the ceremony.

YouTube - Carly & James' Wedding, Oct 17th 09, Riu Santa Fe, Los Cabos, Mexico highlights This is a movie montage of the whole day!

Any questions please don’t hesitate to ask!

Carly x

Carly, your pictures are stunning. You looked beautiful, I loved your dress, just perfect for a destination wedding. I would like to thank you for such a great review. It looks like everyone had a great time, espically you and your husband. I would also like to thank you for leaving your blue tulle, I will be asking Nelly if we could use it for our wedding. I am not to found of the colors they have to offer. I might just order a bit more for the rest of the chairs, we have 30 people coming down for our wedding in January. Then I will leave the rest of it down their for future brides. I just have a question about when you were contacted by Nelly about the planning. Our wedding is scheduled for January 12/2010 and I have not heard from her as of yet. I know they are extremely busy but should I be contacting her soon, or should I just wait to hear from her. Thanks Again for such a great review!!!

Congratualtions on the wedding

I was in touch with Nelly for quite a while before the Wedding as I am a bit of a control freak but only for quick questions regarding cost of extras, locations for reception dinner and things, we we're really going back and forth daily. She was great, she replied to me right away. I think if you email her and tell her you want to start planning now she will be fine with that! If not, don't worry, it is very well organized when you get down there, we finalized everything then, the only thing I did well in advance was book the steak house terrace and the disco so no one else could book it!

Carly x

Great review Carly! Congratulations! You're pictures turned out great, i love all the thought & detail you put into your wedding. It looks like you really customized your big day. Thanks for all the information it will come in handy. By the way I recognize one of your bridesmaids Carrie, I went to high school with her. Small world eh!

 

Hope you are enjoying newlywed bliss

Tina

Carly - Thanks so much for this review! It is so helpful! I was starting to get uninspired, but now I am getting so excited! I am getting married at the Santa Fe in February. Thanks so much for leaving the Tulle it is going to match my colors perfectly! You looked beautiful!

Congrats Carly!! Everything looked amazing!! You did a magnificent job & looked absolutely beautiful!! Thanks for the review...it helps SOOOO many people!!!

That is hilarious! I will have to tell Carrie about that! Thanks for all your kind words!

Carly x

Hi! Sorry I didn't read your reply till now - I haven't gotten through the entire forum yet and trying to catch up!

I see you changed your wedding day from the 11th to the 12th? I have tried to email Nelly but no response. Everyone keeps saying that the WCs are so responsive and helpful but I have not had much luck so far. I am not getting quick responses or responses at all!

Does anyone know the phone number to reach Nelly? Will it help if I call her directly?

Yes we are leaving for Cabo from Toronto on Jan 7th as well! I wonder if we'll be on the same flight!!

Hi Kristen

 

We did change our wedding date, we wanted a late afternoon ceramony, but the only time for us on the 11th was 2:00pm, so we decided to change to the 12th. Nelly just sent me an e-mail today. I know most of the planning will take place when we get down there but I just wanted to make sure we were able to get the steakhouse reserved for our reception dinner. I do not have a phone numer for her but I am sure she will be in touch soon. Our flight on January 7th is leaving Toronto in the afternoon, I believe around 2:00pm. What time is your wedding scheduled for on the 11th? Do you have a big group going down with you?

We have 30 people, this is including our son and nephew. If you do not here from Nelly in the next couple of days I can try to send her an e-mail for you.

Carly, thanks for posting your review/pics/videos. You looked absolutely stunning !!! It's so great to be able to see the what the ceremony site looks like as well as the steakhouse. You really put a lot of thought into detail - great ideas !!! You've definately given me more to think about - and re-inspired me to get back into planning mode !!! Thanks again so much